Peek in the Park: The Minidoka Library

By Camille Daw, Program and Outreach Manager

On October 14, 1942, the Minidoka Irrigator announced that Hiroshi Nagai, incarcerated at Minidoka, started collecting books in Japanese to create a library for Japanese. The U.S. government confiscated Japanese books from incarcerees at Puyallup, but planned to return them to Hiroshi Nagai to create a Japanese library.

The Japanese books, held in the main library, took up a full barrack at Block 23 and provided books and newspapers from areas that incarcerees lived before the U.S. government forcibly removed them from their homes.

Both the high school and the elementary schools had their own libraries. The elementary schools’ only took up half a barrack, but the high school took a full barrack. Popular books for elementary students included comic books, such as Superman, while others read recognizable titles such as Bambi or Robin Hood.

By June 1943, the library contained over 8,000 titles available for incarcerees to read. Over 2,500 of these books were printed in Japanese. However, with a maximum population of over 9,000 individuals, this meant sharing books, many of which were already overused.

Today, Minidoka National Historic Site displays several books from the Japanese section of the library at Minidoka in honor of the Issei.

Courtesy of the National Archives and Records, January 1944

DESCRIPTION: Original WRA caption: A interesting display of books containing information of value to persons planning to relocate was put up in the community library, Rec. 24, this week. Shown here with the display are H. Nagai, Japanese section librarian, and Elsie Hosogi, assistant Japanese section librarian. The library has numerous books containing information about various sections of the country.